The U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA APHIS) highlighted huanglongbing (HLB) disease in the citrus section of its recent Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) 2025 Annual Report. It recognized HLB as the most serious disease of citrus, currently impacting Florida and Texas and threatening citrus in Alabama, Arizona, California, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi.
The report states that PPQ and cooperators in fiscal year (FY) 2025 continued to conduct risk-based surveys for HLB in residential and commercial citrus areas in California. PPQ assists the California Department of Food and Agriculture in aggressively responding to positive detections of HLB (thus far in residential areas only) and implementing Asian citrus psyllid (ACP) control. ACP is the pest that spreads HLB.
HLB MAC AND CRAFT SUPPORT
In December 2013, USDA implemented a unified emergency response framework, the HLB Multi-Agency Coordination (MAC) group, the report notes. HLB MAC’s purpose was to better position USDA to help address the citrus industry’s immediate and long-term needs in dealing with HLB.
Between fiscal year 2014 and 2019, HLB MAC funded 105 projects. They focused on strategies for vector control, therapies for infected trees, sustainability of new plantings, early detection technologies, best management practices for citrus groves and support for the development of HLB-resistant citrus varieties.
Since fiscal year 2019, HLB MAC shifted focus toward determining the best management practices for producing citrus under the threat and pressure of HLB.
PPQ first supported the Florida Citrus Research and Field Trial (CRAFT) project to conduct field evaluations of strategies that showed previous scientific evidence of success. Then PPQ initiated similar projects in California and Texas.
Florida’s CRAFT program is treating more than 86,000 acres (12,000 of them supported with HLB MAC funds) of mature citrus trees with novel therapies as part of the field trials. In California, the program is supporting growers in adopting strategies to mitigate ACP presence in groves covering 6,577 acres to prevent HLB introductions. In Texas, the program is evaluating strategies including different approaches to grove floor management and ACP management on 1,280 acres.
In FY 2025, PPQ provided HLB MAC funds to California, Florida and Texas for ongoing CRAFT projects and provided funding to maintain the CRAFT dashboard.
ADDITIONAL RESEARCH FUNDING
PPQ also funded the following in FY 2025:
- A field trial for potential treatments using symbiont technology (novel delivery system for antimicrobial treatments) and injection technologies
- A project balancing growth and defense phytohormones for optimal yield and productivity of citrus
- A project testing field grafting to deliver citrus tristeza virus vectors into citrus trees to manage HLB without replanting
- Development of fruit residue and worker safety data for future registration of proposed treatments
See the full PPQ 2025 Annual Report for more details.
Source: USDA APHIS
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